The invention relates to a baler, in particular for producing bales of agricultural harvested goods. The baler is embodied as a harvesting machine that is supported on wheels, is either self-propelled or hitched and driven by a tractor. The baler collects the harvested goods by means of collecting/pickup and conveying devices and supplies the collected harvested goods to a pressing device that forms the harvested goods into bales. In order to keep their shape permanently, the bales are tied by tying or binding material that is supplied to the bale from a storage container arranged on the baler and storing the tying material rolls. The storage container for the tying material rolls is pivotable from an operating position into a servicing position in order to allow access to machine parts that are covered in the operating position by the storage container.
Such balers are known in various configurations, sizes and drive variants. However, only square or round balers that are attachable to a tractor vehicle and driven by the tractor have achieved market recognition almost exclusively. The square balers have a pressing piston that is arranged to be reciprocatingly movable within a pressing or compression channel; its movements compress the harvested goods introduced into the compression channel and shape the harvested goods to a square bale. In order to secure the shape of the compressed bale, the bales are tied with a tying twine, yarn or cord or a similar tying material. For this purpose, a tying device is correlated with the compression channel; the tying or knotting device—preferred are double tying devices—during the pressing process supplies by means of tying needles an upper and a lower twine that at the beginning and the end of the respective bale must be knotted together, respectively. The tying twine is unwound from the twine storage roll; the rolls usually are supported in storage containers that are laterally mounted on the frame of the baler. The number as well as the arrangement of the tying twine rolls in the storage containers can vary greatly. Mostly, however, at least 24 tying twine rolls, including reserve rolls, are stored upright in the storage containers in compartments arranged on top of each other and adjacent to each other.
Since the demands on balers are changing constantly and higher compression densities by simultaneously increased throughput are to be always achieved, it is necessary to adapt the quantity and the strength of the tying twine or yarn with which the bales are to be held together to these demands. Accordingly, a daily supply in the storage containers requires a greater number of tying yarn rolls to be carried on the baler; this results in the storage containers becoming increasingly larger with respect to their configuration and thus less accessible to the user. Also it becomes more difficult to have access to the machine components that are positioned behind the storage containers in order to be able to perform servicing work.
The prior art discloses embodiments of balers in which one-part or two-part storage containers are arranged such that they are laterally foldable. In this way, the machine components that are positioned behind the storage containers are made accessible and servicing is made easier, but the accessibility of the storage containers themselves is not improved. Since the storage containers are only pivoted or swivelled to the side, the accessibility of the storage compartments for the tying yarn rolls is not improved. The height of the storage containers relative to the ground surface remains unchanged so that refilling or removal of material rolls into and from the containers is still a complex task. Moreover, the user when supplying the baler with tying yarn material is always impaired by the large size tires of the machine so that the upper compartments of the containers are hardly accessible without auxiliary means or labor procedures prone to cause an accident.